Feed (Newsflesh, #1) by Mira Grant. © 2010 Orbit Books. ISBN 9780316081054. Mass Market Paperback. YA / Horror. 608 pages. $9.99 US. Source: purchased

Synopsis: The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED. Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives – the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will get out, even if it kills them.

Review: The Rising is in the past. George Romero was more helpful than he ever could have imagined. Life has changed, and it doesn’t seem to be for the better.

George (Georgia) and Shaun (note the spelling) Mason are bloggers. Blogging is how the world receives news these days. It was more trustworthy than “normal” media during the Rising and although there are those who still disdain blogging as a source of information, they tend to be holdovers from pre-Rising days. So when George, a die-hard Newsie, Shaun, an Irwin, and their friend Buffy, a Fictional, win the chance to follow presidential candidate Peter Ryman, the first bloggers ever asked to report from the campaign trail.

But someone doesn’t want Ryman to win. George is determined to report the truth, no matter the cost.

Feed is quite simply the best zombie novel I’ve ever read. Part horror, part political thriller, and impossible to put down.

There are oodles of little in-jokes for us zombie aficionados. Buffy’s name, while amusing, is explained in the book. As is George’s. Shaun’s name is spelled the right way (Shaun of the Dead). Tate’s is not, which makes me happy (see reviewer’s last name). Shaun’s blog is titled Hail to the King (Army of Darkness). Non-zombie related amusement is that the crazy, adventurous bloggers are called Irwins (amusement and a nice tribute I think). There is more scattered throughout, but I’m not going through the book to find them. Besides, they’re fun when you come upon them on your own.

I wish the bad guy was a little more three-dimensional, but compared to the jaw-dropping twists, that’s a very minor quibble.

Yes, I said jaw-dropping. There were points where I simply could not believe what I was reading. I could not believe an author would do that to me. Or her characters. But more important, to *me.* It took balls. Nuff said.

The best horror reflects the major issues of the times in which it was created, amplifies them, and turns them inside out. It’s sociology with blood and guts. And Feed is no different.

These days, we see new diseases emerging (SARS), new strains of old diseases (swine flu), and great divides over whether vaccinations are beneficial or harmful. In Feed, the zombies were created by a virus, the Kellis-Amberlee Virus. The virus is extremely well thought-out—it’s obvious the author did her research on epidemiology and that lends to the terror, as does the way the virus evolved and spreads.

Other social concerns we see rise to the fore in Feed are terrorism, identity, death, even the influence of blogging. Of course, concerns about identity, death, and what happens after we die always surface in zombie novels—are we the same people after we die? But Feed, though set in the (near) future, seems so close to now, so possible, that it’s horrifying in more ways than just trying not to become one of the walking dead.

So go forth. Buy. Read. Curse the author and wait anxiously for the next book in the trilogy.

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Jennifer

Jennifer works as a production editor for a major publishing company in NYC but will not review any books put out by the company (under any imprint) on this site since that can be considered a conflict of interest. Areas of interest include Robin Hood, pirates, zombies (and horror in general), Beowulf (and other early English literature, though Beowulf has a soft spot in her heart), medieval history, Celtic history and literature, history of diseases, and some odd subjects like bog bodies. She lives in New Jersey with a husband and a cat. You can find her on LibraryThing, Twitter, and Goodreads.

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